Author
Topic: Final Fantasy XI - Journal!

Yeah. I'm pretty stoked to get both. I'm honesty thinking of resetting Exenterator and getting Stardiver. I already have Phyrric Kleos and Unlocking Mandalic Stab for DNC and THF respectively. Plus Evisceration destroys it in Abyssea. Though I love my MNK and PUP so Shijun Spiral is attractive also. Soo many choices.

BTW any skill up location recommendations for 300+? Having a hell of a time in DO parties.

Any of the original dungeons from pre-Zilart days has new enemies, the same ones you kill for the LB10 items. Grounds tome for extra exp and tabs as well as skill up prowess, maybe skill up food, and if you wanna grind for one a prouesse ring, and if you're lucky martial master will be up too. I like the exit in ranguemont's pass to beucedine glacier, since it's right next to a zone line and gives you an easy escape route plus there's a tome right by the exit. Only hard part is getting there....long ass walk.

So I finally got 357 skill in GS and GK and picked up Resolution and Tachi:Shoha. I'm 5/5 on Shoha and the damage is incredible when both hits connect and crit. Average damage is really good but man if I haven't had a couple 400-800 damage whiffs. Working on Resolution next, so hopefully it will be more consistent. Is it worth the effort hunting the elemental gorgets/belts to boost the WS damage?

Shoha actually can't crit, I think the damage spikes it gives are generally from double attacks (triple/quad attacks if you have that kind of stuff too). If it was crit it'd actually be really consistently high in Abyssea since Abyssea pushes your crit rate so high. It definitely has a really high variance because it's pretty much the only multihit GKT WS worth using (Rana is just meh).

For Resolution, gorget+belt is a massive difference in its performance because the special bonus it gives applies to every hit for that WS as opposed to just the initial hit like it for most WSs (I'll spare you the nerdgasm math, it increases the base damage- that is, the damage without factoring in attack/defense, of the WS by like 25% if you have both). This isn't true for Exenterator or Shoha though, so at least you're only going with one WS that needs them.

For resolution, absolutely. The elemental gorget/belt will improve not only your overall damage, but the consistency of high damage. As the great Hathen has already mentioned, the nerdgastic math aside, they improve the base formula for the damage per hit, and since resolution A: is a five hit ws and B: has a maxed out mod of 100% str, the ele gorget/belt really benefit it greatly. If you really wanna have some fun, try souleater with it...just watch out when half your health dissappears.

Ok, that explains alot. After spending a decent chunk of time with Shoha, i'm not very happy with the damage inconsistencies. To be honest I'm really thinking of ditching it and going with Stardiver. Any decent feedback on Entropy?

Entropy is tolerable. It can deal nice damage, more than any other scythe ws outside of relic and mythic and maybe empyrean. The mp recovered is pretty awesome too, great when you're fake tanking and spamming dread spikes and drains/absorbs. The problem is that first of all, it's an intelligence modifier, and dark knights do not have that great of an int. stat, and the gear needed to improve it is stupid hard to come by. The other problem is if you're on drk, tbere is no demanding reason not to be using greatsword and resolution almost exclusively. The damage difference is pretty obvious. I'm a career dark knight, so I have both, but entropy honestly sees much less use than resolution. It's basically a matter of logic. Dark knights are damage dealerz, so you want to deal the utmost damage you can, and you won't do it with a scythe.

Stardiver is pretty good, though dragoons are still scoffed at most of the time. I'd say if you plan on using drg a lot, get it. Dragoons are pretty capable of good damage, and stardiver is handy for that. If you're gunning for warrior at any point, I would recommend getting an ukonvasara, as Ukko's Fury will deal more damage than upheaval, unoess you can stack retarded amounts of vitality. I actually gave up Upheaval because I couldn't be bothered gearing for it, and eventually I'll have a ragnarok which warrior can equip, so reso all day.

Stardiver is great. It's just that Drakesbane is one of the few Mythic WSs that is respectable all on its own so it doesn't feel like as big a bump up as the other merit WSs might feel like.

Entropy's the best Scythe WS. I recall it being stronger than both Catastrophe (another utility WS) and Insurgency, unless you're using a Liberator with the latter. Quietus is crap at the moment, subject to change if they tinker with how attack/defense works because that's supposed to be its draw. But these days, as D said, Scythe has moved into a more utility role for DRK while Great Sword is what they go to for pure damage. A DRK with an Apocalypse and Entropy has some pretty crazy survivability, and Twilight Scythe has its obvious uses. Entropy's generally considered a "Hardcore DRKs only" move.

I had Upheaval on my WAR for a while, but then I realized even if I don't get an Ukon, Raging Rush serves you pretty well, especially if you're using Dies Irae, so I got Shijin Spiral for my MNK instead. Asuran Fists has not aged terribly well.

I didn't mention apoc for another solid reason when I talked about entropy. U.less you're a perfectionist or a career job, making an apoc over ragnarok is just silly. 9/10 times you're not gonna be solo in game, so being able to keep yourself alive is unecessary. To skip the ragnarok in favor of survivablility is silly as a drk. That being said, an apoc user can actually use entropy quite well. Matter of fact, an apoc user will probably outdamage a reso spam on a non-relic/emp drk or a fulgurante with occasionally attacks twice drk. Honestly, I'd recommend liberator over apoc at tgis point simply for making resolution better. Liberator augments absorbs spells, so add that on your absorb str, and watch the numbers soar.

I like shijin spiral, btw. The plague effect, coupled with chi blast and the tp inhibit merit effect make encounters very safe. Plus, dex is easy to come by on monk.

I was considering Spiral for MNK, but Aesthetic's Fury still dominates in Abyssea. I guess I'm really looking for a collection of merit WS that don't require another 12 bag slots for incidental gear and that have utility inside and outside of Abyssea. Resolution is pretty much par for course, the others are much less clear cut and situationall. I'm sorry to hear scythe has fallen so out of favor with DRK, especially since its our A+ weapon.

I don't plan on playing long enough to invest in a relic or a mythic. I may finish my Empyrean though since I'm pretty far along.

Thing is, these days a WS that is good both inside and outside Abyssea is pretty hard to come by. Most of them involve building a specific ultimate weapon which I'm sure you're not interested in (EX: Ukko's Fury, Victory Smite, Chant du Cygne, Blade: Hi etc), thus you get merit WSs. I think you should decide on which jobs you are more interested in playing outside of Abyssea often and get merit WSs for them, because damage you're doing inside Abyssea isn't as big a deal.

I'm actually not sure what jobs you even have, but I do know that Shoha is actually the best SAM can bet on unless they have a Masamune, in which case they can spam Tachi: Fudo, so maybe you want to keep that one.

The Scythe VS Great Sword problem is probably hard to balance, because both Scythe and Great Sword are slashing, so it isn't even like a case of Staff VS Spears for DRGs, where a DRG might melee in a staff with their B skill when they're fighting a skeleton or something really strong to piercing. Ultimately, if they decided to just make Entropy a top-end damage WS like Resolution, it would mean that DRK has a choice between damage or damage, and math wizes across the internet will eventually find out one trumps the other and the other will fall into disuse for DRKs (which has happened multiple times, from when DRKs favored GSDs thanks to Spinning Slash and /THF, then they went back to Scythes after some adjustments, and now they're back to using great swords again). The director implied at one point he wants to encourage more use of a variety of weapons, though (he mentioned something like trying to give each weapon type its own unique properties), so maybe there's something to look forward to as far as that goes.

I've asked around a little and i've been told that Faithful has not been seen a long while. Do you have any names associated with him (ls members etc)? It could help with finding him. Lots of people are coming back for adoulin so if i end up seeing him i will be sure to let you know.

FTR, the Tonelico character hasn't been active on the AH for 24 months as well.

New expansion dropped tuesday, went live wednesday. Few basic thoughts so far...

Rune fencer is my second favorite class now. I enjoy the shit out of it, and it's only level 30. Can't wait to see it at 99 (saturday probably lolol)

The new area, Adoulin, is very pretty considering what they had to work with, and the music has a very oldschool rpg town feel to it. I approve.

The music itself is impressive, I like the new battle theme, much more than abyssea or even standard fighting, though assault battle music is still king.

Reives, the new collaborative battle objective thingy, is pretty intense right now. Enemies are on your level, and they don't play around. Constant respawning, high damage output, and and small quarters for fighting results in a large clusterfuck and bodies everywhere. However, it also means you have to cut loose and fight hard. No more 30 second fight and you're done, you're working now. It's great fun so far.

Kudos to SE for breathing some life into this game, and hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for XIV.